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May 2, 2008 7:24 pm US/Eastern
Crippling Economy Forces Many To Food Pantries
Tri-State Area Residents Swallow Pride And Ask For Help
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
With jobs being cut and food prices soaring, families who used to have an easier time paying their bills now need help.
Many are turning to food pantries to put meals on their tables.
"When I left I just pulled over the side of the street and cried. I called my husband and I just cried," Lorraine Angel said.
Angel found herself reaching for a safety net she never thought she'd need. The church food pantry she went to for help asked no questions.
If they had she would've told them she owns her home in Hicksville that her husband has a government job, and she was recently laid off from the mortgage industry.
That, and the soaring price of food, sent her looking for help.
"I have a 14-year-old and a 10-year-old and I go through three gallons of milk a week," Angel said. "Just recently I had to go for help because I had to pay a bill. We had no food."
No food in a middle class American home. Food pantry operators say it's happening more often than you think.
"I ask them what brought you here and they tell me they were making it, they were getting by and now they can't because of the increase in the food prices," said Deanna London of Human Needs Food Pantry.
Pantries that accept government funding require you have little or no income before they offer aid. But many others will extend a hand to anyone. Angel said she had no choice.
"It's not just me," she said. "There are other people out there that are like me."
In our area, with its high cost of living, families making $30,000 or more can find themselves driven to food pantries.
It's a tough emotional step, though.
The director of the Hunger Coalition here in New York City says as many as 200,000 New Yorkers under the poverty line find it too humiliating to ask for help.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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